Turkey

Globalization has come to an NBA roster near you. The season opens this week with 84 players born outside the United States on NBA rosters, or about 20 percent. That is the highest number of international players ever in the NBA. There are 38 countries or territories represented on the list, and players are on…

In these troubled times, it’s a comfort to have a white knight, a hero of value and high moral fiber that represents everything we hold dear and everything we aspire to be. The closest thing the NBA has ever had to such a resilient role model wasn’t in the NBA at all last season, and…

Fabricio Oberto is a man who can get things done. That despite being a little to slow, not great on the boards and not quite good enough a shot. He plays a smart game — which is why he was a starter for the 2007 title-winning Spurs, his interior passing was a great fit with…

A decision could come any day now, but Allen Iverson is still talking about taking his talents to Turkey to play for Besiktas Cola Turka, according to the Associated Press. Sanem Helvacikoylu, in charge of foreign relations for the team, said Friday that Besiktas is a big club and has conditions in the contract, including…

Allen Iverson’s next game may be in Turkey. Not as part of the NBA’s preseason traveling road show (go globalization!) but as a member of a Turkey League team. Because nobody in the NBA will give him a shot. Larry Brown, the coach who got the most out of Iverson — by setting up an…

What did Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Chauncey Billups and the rest of Team USA get for winning the gold medal at the FIBA World Championships in Turkey. The bonus was $25,000. Which in case you’re curious is about 0.4 percent of what Kevin Durant will make this season. Some nice pocket change for him. Chris…

Alan Iverson playing in Turkey? It seems to have come to that after he can find no interest in the NBA. Iverson’s representatives and a Turkish club are now in serious negotiations. Yahoo Sports spoke to Iverson’s agent. “We are in very serious negotiations with [Besiktas],” Iverson’s business manager Gary Moore told Yahoo! Sports. “Istanbul…

Few names in the NBA demand the respect of “Fabricio Oberto,” as long as “respect” is measured in smirks, sighs, and knowing guffaws. The Argentinian big man, who played for the Washington Wizards last season, has had a tidy, victorious, and fairly unproductive career as a late-arrival to the American basketball scene. Oberto was a…

Think back a couple weeks ago to the start of the FIBA World Championships, to all those concerns about Team USA — they were not big enough, they lacked international experience, they were too young. You can get caught up in what a team can’t do and ignore what it can. And this version of…

The Serbian national team held the lead virtually throughout their semifinal match with Turkey, but a mini-unraveling over the game’s final minutes and busted defensive coverage on Turkey’s final possession changed everything. Rather than the Serbians finishing their turbulent FIBA run with a finale against the Americans, they’ll be playing for Bronze, while the host…

The White Shadow is a cult classic here in America, a touchstone for men (then boys) alive in the late 1970s. The television show about a white former NBA player whose career was cut short by a knee injury so he coached at a predominantly African-American high school was the Friday Night Lights of its…

And it is looking more and more like the gold medal game of the World Championships will be the USA vs. Turkey. Serbia 92, Spain 89: This was an upset — not a massive, Buster Douglas/Mike Tyson upset, but an upset. It was also the fair result, Serbia controlled most of this game, but a…

Spain is good with a depth of talent we know about. Argentina has the best player so far in the tournament in Luis Scola. Brazil already almost beat the USA. Greece has been very good and has the motion offense that can give the USA fits. Turkey is playing better than all of them. And…

No Amare Stoudemire but you’ve got Hedo Turkoglu and Josh Childress so everything will be just fine in Phoenix, right? Well, that assumes you get the 2009 playoff version of Turkoglu. You know, the one the Toronto Raptors paid for but called lemon law on. But now out of Toronto, fresh start in a great…

You know the USA was hardly tested in a 106-78 win over Croatia, but the other FIBA World Championship favorite Spain lost its opener. What that means may not be all bad — if Lithuania wins that group (no sure thing yet, by any stretch) the USA and Spain could meet in the finals, not…

Let me guess, you have not spent a lot of time watching Croatia’s national team. To be honest, neither have we. Fortunately there is Tony Ronzone, Team USA’s director of international player personnel (and assistant GM for the Timberwolves). He gets paid to watch and know these teams and provide scouting reports. Which he did…

You’re ready. You’ve read up on Team USA and its group. You’ve watched the warm-up games. Even your Facebook profile picture is a USA jersey. You are set to watch Team USA destroy the world as is its manifest destiny…. Except they could lose. It is possible — and not a slim possibility, but a…

In the World Cup, the toughest group of four drawn gets the moniker “Group of Death” because some quality team is not going to be advancing to the final 16. If there were a Group of Death for the FIBA World Championships, it would be Group B. The USA’s group. Except that it really doesn’t…

Okay, we admit this is a crazy long shot. So does Chris Tomasson of Fanhouse, who is in Istanbul and may have been in a hookah bar for all we know when he came up with it. But hear us out: It is possible for USA Basketball not to qualify for the 2012 Olympics in…

And somewhere in Maui, for a reason unbeknownst to him, Don Nelson felt a chill go up his spine…. In the final minutes of a Team USA practice scrimmage Wednesday, Stephen Curry went down with a twisted ankle, according to John Schuhman of NBA.com. The team is calling it mild and he is day-to-day. Team…

A couple days into the Team USA practices in New York — and with tip-off of the World Basketball Classic tomorrow at Radio City Music Hall — here are two things becoming clear about this team: They are going to use a lot of pressure defenses, and they are going to bomb threes. The defensive…

Danny Granger is too often overlooked — he was eighth in the NBA in scoring last year — a very good player lost on a struggling team. He could use a breakout forum, like Team USA at the World Championships. Except that is now up in the air. Granger thinks he dislocated the ring finger…

You don’t think of France as an international basketball powerhouse — because they are not — but they were going to roll out an impressive and long NBA front line in Turkey next month: Joakim Noah (Chicago), Boris Diaw (Charlotte) and Ian Mahinmi (Dallas). Well, they still have two thirds of that. French coach Vincent…

Can you win a world title in international ball without a quality center? We’re about to find out. Team USA is going into the World Championships in Turkey next month without Brook Lopez — the best center on Team USA by a long shot. Lopez has pulled out of the FIBA World Championships in Turkey…

There is good news for Philadelphia — Andres Nocioni should be healthy and ready to go by training camp in December. Argentina basketball fans, the news isn’t as good. Nocioni sprained his ankle last Friday while training with the Argentinean national team for the upcoming FIBA World Championships in Turkey. Sixers doctors just got a…